All fairytales have happy endings
by Crystal heart of ruby love
Summary: It seems that all fairytales have happy endings. Snow white... Cinderella... Sleeping beauty... But the Princess of Orb? Will she have a happy ending? Or is reality harsh?


_Author's note: Another tragic story from me… Hope you enjoy it… Please read and review!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny and the characters..._

**All fairytales have happy endings…**

All fairytales had happy endings… She knew it from the many old fairytales she read. Fairytales of eras way before the Cosmic Era…

Fairytales of Cinderella…

Fairytales of Sleeping beauty…

Fairytales of Snow White…

Fairytales of every kind of princesses who found their princes…

Fairytales had to have happy endings. She believed that…

But fairytales were fairytales, reality was reality… Who was she to live out a fairytale? They called her the Princess of Orb, the Representative of Orb. It was just a name; she never really appeared to look like a Princess – she never wore dresses, never had cosmetics on, never spent more time in front of the mirror… She hated to look like a girl, hated to be called 'Princess' and she acted like a boy, firing guns and riding mobile suits. Who was she to live out a fairytale?

She guessed that was why he gave her up. He wouldn't want a boyish wife; he would want what every man wanted – a dutiful wife, a pretty maiden, a caring lady… not some kind of tomboy…

Not someone like her…

He wanted that cute red-haired, the one who had saved him, the one whom he had saved, the one who wore dresses, and dressed up for him…

Not her…

She was made to choose between responsibility and love. What had she chosen? Responsibility. She didn't know if her choice was right, or if she had simply sealed her own bitter fate. Perhaps she was wrong; to ever slip off that ring he had given her, wrong to agree to wed that scoundrel in believing that she would save her country… Was she? Was she wrong? It seemed like she hadn't thought of his feelings… Who was she to live out a fairytale?

She believed that he was betraying her when he joined enemy forces. She hadn't realized that he was trying to protect her. It was for her sake, but she had accused him of being a traitor… She was wrong. It was her mistake…

Mistakes… she had made a lot of them. Maybe that was why he didn't want her anymore…

He didn't want her anymore…

Fairytales had happy endings… Reality was harsh, it was practical. She guessed that she just didn't have what it took to stay in the struggle of reality. Perhaps that was why she failed, that was why he didn't want her anymore…

That was why she lost him…

She watched his wedding, watched him in his suit and watched his crimson-haired bride. She wished it was her in the wedding gown. She smiled at him; she raised her cup to toast him; she witnessed him agree to be a good husband; she congratulated them; she left cheerily… Betrayal. She was betraying her heart, lying, denying…

She cried that night, crying while her loved one consummated his marriage with his new wife. Oughtn't that to be her?

No, not her…

∞∞∞ §§ ♥ §§ ∞∞∞

She gazed at the stream, felt the water running through her toes, and heard the loud rushes of the waterfall…

Slowly, she stripped herself of her clothes and stepped into the cold water. The current threatened to sweep her of her feet but she clung on to a mossy rock, her body floating on the water.

Failure. Coward. She knew she was a failure and a coward. But she couldn't stand life anymore, not without him. She had failed in every attempt to forget him; she lived in utter misery… and now she knew one way in which she could remember him and live happily ever after like every fairytale.

But she had chosen responsibility before. It wasn't that she could give that up easily. She had made every necessary arrangement. She gave up her post; appointed her brother as Representative of Orb, visited everyone she could remember or knew…

Except him…

She didn't want him to know, not now…

She smiled, feeling the water run through her hair, caressing her face… It felt like his fingers, felt like he was the one caressing her…

She released her grip on her only support and felt herself swept away by the current… Not afraid, not frightened… Her body smashed into a rock and plummeted downwards at a horrid speed. But not afraid, not frightened… She heard a crack as her body landed in the swirling pool of rocks… Everyone had choices. His was to find his happiness, to marry the beautiful red-head. Hers had been responsibility but now, hers was to find love without giving up her responsibility. She was sure she had finally made a right choice and she was finally free to find what every fairytale princess had to have…

∞∞∞ §§ ♥ §§ ∞∞∞

He clutched the ring tightly, hot tears streaming down his cheeks. What had he done? What mistake had he committed? What wrong choice had he chosen to follow?

He remembered her brother's words, telling him how she had chosen to find a way into a fairytale. She was found at the bottom of the waterfall, her lips poised in a glad smile, her hand clutching the ring he had given her…

The ring he had given her…

That hadn't been a wrong choice…

He still loved her, still missed her. He had married to spite her, a wrong choice… He had married, having not seen her wearing his ring, thinking she no longer loved him… Wrong choice…

His red-haired wife knew that and she chose to divorce him, to give him a chance to make a right choice, to give him a chance to step into a fairytale…

The cemetery was silent when they found him there. A dagger through his ribs, his hand clutching the ring, his lips in a similar smile as she had when she had died, orange petals strewn across his body as his head laid by her grave.

Right choices made… to be able to have right endings for all fairytales, even those in reality…

∞∞∞ §§ ♥ §§ ∞∞∞

They sat at the top of the slope, smiling in bliss… The man's hand on the woman's, covering the single ring encircling her finger. Footsteps drew their attention and they turned to look at the cemetery splayed out before them.

Her brother had come again to pay his respects to them, his wife and friends trailing after him…

He placed the bouquet of roses at the grave and stepped back to look at the carvings…

_Cagalli Yula Athha and Athrun Zala_

_Died together in each other's arms,_

_May they find their love and live out their fairytale…_

It hurt to lose his best friend and his sister. But, it was the right choice… to be together like in a fairytale where every princess has her own prince or knight… He bowed his head and closed his eyes for a moment before turning to leave the cemetery.

The man and woman at the top of the slope merely chuckled. They rose and descended the grassy hill, walking towards their graves… The breeze was gentle, playing across their faces and whipping at their hair as they walked, fading into the wind, entering their own fairytale… They knew now, that all fairytales had happy endings…

∞∞∞ §§ ♥ §§ ∞∞∞

**The End**

_Author's note: It wasn't intentional on my part to make them die but somehow, it turned out this way... Hope it meets your expectation. Please review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated…_


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